The following review contains spoilers about season 8 episode 1 of Game of Thrones.

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>>Source <<

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Year: 2019
Category: Fantasy, Drama.
Director: David Nutter.
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Alfie Allen, Iain Glen, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Kristofer Hivju, John Bradley-West, Rory McCann, Liam Cunningham, Jerome Flynn, Conleth Hill, Joseph Dempsie, Pilou Asbæk, Anton Lesser, Richard Dormer, Gemma Whelan, Ben Crompton, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Daniel Portman, Rupert Vansittart, Bella Ramsey.

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Plot

The episode centers around Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow arriving in Winterfell with Unsullied and Dothraki forces, after Jon Snow has pledged his allegiance to her. It also reunites Jon with his Stark siblings Bran and Arya for the first time since the first season's second episode.

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Opinion

After a long wait finally season 8 is here, the question is: did the episode satisfy the audience?

The episode begins showing Jon and Daenerys arriving at Winterfell, while the camera follows a child who jumps from rock to rock and climbs a tree to watch the arrival of the rulers, remembering what happened when Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister visited Winterfell in the first episode of the series, but on that occasion Bran Stark was the one who climbed the walls, even the theme is the same.

We see how Jon meets Bran after a long time, and immediately warns about the fact that The Night King put the fallen dragon of Daenerys at his service and use it to knock down the wall, so they quickly meet with the men of the North in the same room where Jon was given the title of King in the North, but this time Jon is reproached for the speed with which he lost his crown and was subordinated to Daenerys.

At this moment we begin to see that the relationships between the different characters and the fight of egos will be one of the main adversities to overcome to face the danger represented by the White Walkers. The army is big, but there is not enough food for everyone, and even the Dragons, which represent a very powerful weapon, must also eat large quantities of food, which is not happening. The relations between Daenerys and Sansa are not good, and soon the House Glover decides to retire.

It may seem like a selfish struggle, but we must understand what Daenerys represents for the men of the north. In the first place, she is the daughter of Aerys II Targaryen, the Mad King, so the reputation that has helped her to gain support in other places represents the opposite in the north. In the second place, Daenerys arrives accompanied by Tyrion, a Lannister, with whom they were recently at war, and besides being Hand of the Queen, he announces that part of the Lannister army comes to the north, which makes them distrust even more, but that's not all, Daenerys also arrives with Jorah Mormont, who in turn has a bad reputation among men of the north due to his past as a slaveholder.

Above all that scenario, from the point of view of the northern Houses, Daenerys is seen as a conqueror who represents everything against what they fought in recent years. And finally, in a later scene, Daenerys tells Samwell Tarly that she killed his father and his brother, which puts her popularity on the floor in the eyes of Jon's family, friends and colleagues. "Nothing lasts," says Varys to Davos Seaworth and Tyrion, at the same time he looks at Jon and Daenerys.

Later, almost at the end of the episode, and after a ride in dragons between Jon and Daenerys, Samwell meets Jon and reveals him, at Bran's request, his true identity; he is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark and his real name is Aegon Targaryen, a true heir of the Iron Throne. The revelation, in my opinion, was not dramatic enough, however, the repercussions that will have on the relationship between Jon and Daenerys, taking into account everything that I mentioned before, will be quite important and probably negative.

On the other side of the map, in King's Landing, a conversation takes place between Euron and Yara Greyjoy, whom he holds as a prisoner, and in which Yara tells Euron that he chose the loser side, that is, Cersei's side, however, he replies that he will then change sides, but first he will fuck Cersei, something he gets after presenting to her Harry Strickland, leader of The Golden Company, which has come to fight for Cersei.

Shortly after, Qyburn gives to Bronn the same crossbow with which Tywin was assassinated, ordering to him that it assassinates Jaime and Tyrion by "orders of Cersei". Bronn has always moved for money, but will he really be able to kill Jaime or Tyrion? It's something I'm not sure about, but he did not seem to put up much resistance about it.

In the episode, we also find different reunions, Tyrion with Sansa, Jon is reunited Samwell, Bran and finally with Arya, and she in turn is reunited with The Hound and Gendry. Some were more emotional than others, probably the most special was the reunion between Jon and Arya, however, conveys the feeling that all relationships have changed, and this is mainly because the characters had many experiences since they were seen by last time.

Yara is rescued by Theon, and although I understand that due to the length of the season they had to resolve some issues quickly, I think the way this scene developed leaves many questions too. Theon has managed to reach King's Landing without being discovered, infiltrated a ship and killed his crew without any difficulty, and then rescued his sister. I thought that this would be a bit more complicated, but apparently the writers did not complicate the situation very much and quickly and easily removed a problem, although this does not mean that they did it in a good way.

Later we see how Yara allows Theon to go north to fight with the Starks, while she will go to The Iron Islands taking advantage of the fact that Euron will not be there, and considering that the White Walkers can not swim, it is likely that we will not see Yara until the end of the season.

To culminate, two highly interesting situations are presented, and both are related to Bran; the first is the look Bran gives Tyrion after he talks to Sansa. Why is this interesting? because as I said in my post: 5 Things that I think will happen in Game of Thrones Season 8, rumors indicate that Tyrion will do something for which he will possibly be judged, does Bran know? Is that look a confirmation that Tyrion is plotting something under the table?

Finally, the next and last interesting situation related to Bran, is regarding his reunion with Jaime Lannister; "I'm waiting for an old friend," Bran said to Samwell, and that old friend was precisely Jaime Lannister, whom he did not see, personally, since Jaime himself pushed him from the window of a tower at the end of the first episode of the series. I do not think Bran will hold a grudge now that he is the Three-Eyed Raven, however, I do not think Jaime will get out of this situation totally unpunished.

What I personally liked about the episode, is that I could check the almost definitive evolution of each of the characters, Jon, who was arrogant and individualistic in the first season, now he does not care about fame or his personal glory but to fight for a goal larger; Daenerys' evolution led her from being a submissive victim to her brother to being a highly dominating queen; Arya is no longer that girl who needed protection and who was impulsive, now she is a very meticulous murderer; Bran is no longer that anxious child who climbed the walls of Winterfell, now he remains in constant calm being the Three-Eyed Raven; Sansa is no longer that innocent and gullible girl, her experience has made her one of the most astute characters in the series. And many other characters also evolved a lot, something that can be seen perfectly in this episode.

In conclusion, I think that with this episode the bases of the season are established, most of the reunions took place, the position of everyone on the problem has been shown, the characters that had to be known have been known. It has not been the best episode, because I believe that some events took place a bit quickly, however, the photographic work is quite good.

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Trailer